Cook and Flower deserve some sympathy but England fans be warned, it could get worse before it gets better

Perhaps the clues were there all along. Perhaps no one wanted to decipher them. Perhaps victory isn’t good for introspection.

Even Alastair Cook, speaking ahead of the final humiliation at Sydney, had to concede it was possible, just possible, that England’s 3-0 win last year had not been all it was cracked up to be.

This column’s prediction for the return leg was 2-2. In truth, it was a cop-out: no Ashes series had been drawn since 1972. But it was based on the belief that there was little between the sides, a belief arrived at after watching the events of the summer.

Flower's lost his power: There have been calls for Andy Flower's head but it's difficult not to have some sympathy with the embattled England coach

Facing the music: Alastair Cook's lack of tactical flair as a captain and loss of form with the bat was alarming

It reckoned, though, without two crucial factors. First, Darren Lehmann’s Australia were playing less fearfully than Andy Flower’s England. Second, whereas Australia had a point to prove, England had the task of rousing themselves for a second emotional high in quick succession.

On those two fundamentals was assembled the brickwork of detail: the menace of Mitchell Johnson, the counter-attacks of Brad Haddin, the accuracy of Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle, the disintegration of all England’s senior players bar Stuart Broad.

But without the basic difference in attitude, none of these factors would have had the same impact.

Some of us – this column included – scoffed when Australia banged on about taking the goddamn positives out of their defeat in Ashes Pt I. But part of the scoffing may have come from a place of concern, for no one in their right mind could have argued that 3-0 represented the true balance of power.

In the third Test at Old Trafford, as Australia racked up 527 for seven, Cook was quick to go on the defensive, and even quicker to slow things down, if that’s possible. Australia liked what they saw: England, already 2-0 up and needing only a draw to retain the Ashes, were playing like the team on the receiving end.

England’s win at Chester-le-Street, from a position of weakness, told us just as much about Australia, who had forgotten how to convert their chances. As for The Oval, rain obscured any real sense of ebb and flow.

And so England arrived in Australia trusting not only in the inviolability of their summer triumph, but also in the method that had worked so well three winters earlier: steady top-order batting, giant seamers, dry bowling, a bit of Graeme Swann. Keep it tight; don’t give ’em a sniff. It had worked well for Andrew Strauss, and so it could work well for Cook.

The trouble was they came up against a team who refused to play ball. From the moment Swann’s second delivery of the series was carted over long-off by David Warner, Australia made it clear they weren’t going to allow England to apply their two-an-over tourniquet.

England’s tail, meanwhile, faced a barrage of bumpers. Cowed from the word go, they offered no resistance whatsoever as the series progressed: Swann, Tim Bresnan and to a lesser extent Broad were reduced to tailenders. And that placed more pressure on the top six. As in the 1990s, it was a case of five-out, all-out.

Dejection: Cook and his outplayed England side look on at the end of a horrible Ashes series

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As for that top six, they were simply asphyxiated by Australia’s seamers. They actually played Johnson better than you might think: 20 of his 37 wickets were Nos 7-11, and Ian Bell didn’t fall to him once.

But Harris conceded only 2.55 runs an over, and Siddle 2.46. Well over one-quarter of all the overs Australia sent down were maidens; England’s figure was barely one-sixth, mainly because Haddin kept spooking them into dropping short by hammering their good-length offerings over mid-off.

England’s three batting stalwarts had no response. Cook became ground down by Australia’s refusal to feed his back-foot strengths, as they had done in 2010-11. Pietersen disappeared into a debate about the wisdom of ‘playing my own game’, and kept getting caught on the leg side. Bell faded into elegant aberration. These things happen when the opposition are on song.

By comparison, the bowling was a triumph – which wasn’t saying much. Broad was outstanding throughout, and Ben Stokes will show even more promise when he stops banging it in halfway down.

Elation: Australia pose with the urn and the Commonwealth Bank trophy after demolishing England

But Jimmy Anderson was unable to locate the swing – or the cloud cover – that made him so potent in Australia three years ago. He didn’t bowl badly. He was just steady. In that sense, he embodied England’s dilemma.

And let’s be clear: this series was not lost by the fringe players, guys like Scott Borthwick or Gary Ballance or Boyd Rankin. It was lost by a collective failure among the seniors, who lacked Australia’s hunger and adventure.

So what of Andy Flower and Cook? In part, they deserve our sympathy: no coach or captain should have to deal with 10 back-to-back Ashes Tests, neither the mental and physical exhaustion it entails, nor the degree of scrutiny.

But Cook’s lack of tactical flair was at times alarming. Slips were taken away when they should have been left in place, third man was usually forgotten about, and the way he spread the field on the third morning at the MCG, allowing Haddin and Nathan Lyon to add vital runs for the last wicket, was the act of a captain who had lost control.

Above all, Cook must now decide what sort of captain he wants to be, because Strauss-lite isn’t cutting the mustard.

Flower can point to 2009 in defence of his decision to stay (and of his employers’ not to sack him). It was then, in the aftermath of the Pietersen-Moores fiasco and a series loss in the Caribbean that he helped renew English cricket.

Evidently, he likes a challenge. Well, he’s got one now. But things could get worse before they get better.

THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS

A tale of two captains

Michael Clarke cheerfully admitted before the Sydney Test that winning captains can get away with murder. He might have been making a point about his own batting. After back-to-back hundreds in the second innings at Brisbane and the first at Adelaide, his form fell away so badly that his last seven knocks (101 runs at 16) were less productive than Alastair Cook’s (165 at 23).

Yet it was Cook who lacked the tactical nous, the scary fast bowler and the unstoppable No 7 – so his own form with the bat became more of a story. As Clarke was honest enough to imply, history is written by the winners.

Davey’s helping hand

David Warner can count. That may come as a surprise to those of you who have followed his career closely, but the evidence was there for all to see as joined his team-mates in a lap of honour around the SCG on Sunday afternoon, pausing only to peer up towards the media centre to indicate the score – one hand splayed at the fingers, the other rolled into a fist, which seemed appropriate. We got it, Davey: 5-0!

High five: David Warner reminds everyone of the score atop the shoulders of Brad Haddin

Whether this gesture was aimed at journalists from Australia or the UK, it was hard to say. But after Warner’s Twitter fallout with members of the Australian press last year, it was reassuring to see him lend a helping hand.

Mitch ado

Of course, there are classy ways to win too, and Mitchell Johnson went up in this column’s estimation throughout a series in which he was always too polite to call England’s batsmen ‘scared’, but – when asked the question – always paused for just long enough to make his point.

Johnson’s haul of 37 wickets at 13.97 apiece backed up Clarke’s post-match claim at the SCG that he had bowled spells better than anything Clarke had seen from the many great Australian bowlers he had previously played with. And it was heartening that Johnson’s unconvincing sledging – he’s too nice a bloke to snarl as if he means it – had nothing to do with his aura.

Bowled over: Mitchell Johnson was superb on the pitch and impressed The Top Spin off it

Best of all was the realisation that a five-Test series does not need to militate against sheer pace. Bring on South Africa v Australia.

First-hand experience

Paul Downton, the affable new MD of the England team, knows all about a crisis. It was his pleasure to keep wicket in 30 Test matches in the 1980s – and his misfortune to do so in 16 against West Indies, 13 of them lost by England. If anyone can relate to the current malaise, it may just be him.